Newspaper Columns by Bishop Paul V. Marshall
Let us give thanks
By Bishop Paul V. Marshall
September, 2004Inflation continues to strike. “Have a nice day” has been replaced at the checkout of my favorite convenience store with “Have a great day.” This summer I even got “Have a terrific evening.” The very prospect made me feel young, if only for a moment.
With all these good wishes coming my way, why do I miss “Thank you” so much? It would take fewer words, but that’s not it. It has a host of socially acceptable responses without having to pronounce a similarly cloying benediction to “have a good/great/terrific day/evening” on the cashier. That’s not it either.
Saying thank you is about acknowledging our interdependence. In a world where everyone feels entitled, it is a reminder that we are not entitled: we are dependent on the good will, efforts, and indeed, the cash, of others. In a society as complex as ours, nobody can go it alone. Oddly, the more prosperous one is, the more one depends on the efforts of others. No one is an island. No one is even a peninsula.
Even though I pay medical professionals or other service providers, I make it a point to thank them for their efforts. It reminds us that we are in this together.
There is even more here, though, than even the health-giving qualities that saying thanks produces in the one saying it by reminding them of their connectedness and interdependence. Being thanked reminds also the one who is thanked that each of us has a contribution to make to the welfare of others by how we expend our time, money, and energy.
People who sense themselves as interdependent are unlikely to exploit or abuse their fellow citizens. A society that can perceive itself as interdependent is unlikely to tolerate the regal pretensions of those in government who are meant to be the people’s servants. I dare to hope that if enough thank you’s were said, democracy would be reborn in America.
The rituals of ordinary life can reinforce this healthy attitude. The revival of saying grace at meals would not do anything to lower the incident of food poisoning, but it would go a long way toward forming us as people who remember -- whether we find the origin of our sustenance in the Big Bang or the six days creation in Genesis or both -- that our food comes from outside ourselves, and is also the product of the labor of many hands. We rely on a gift. When we recognize it as such, we might be more inclined to share it ungrudgingly.
For the overwhelming majority of the world’s Christians, the central act of worship is the Eucharist, a Greek word for thanksgiving. In the Roman Mass, the Divine Liturgy of Byzantine worshipers, or the Holy Communion service of many Protestants, access to the central mystery of faith begins with a simple dialog that includes, “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.” It moves on to words of profound thanksgiving. To the extent that they take this central act of their worship seriously, and let it move them, worshipers may find their attitudes transformed.
Whether we speak of religious ritual or the everyday rituals of saying thanks to all we rely on for income or services, thank you is a way to make us and our society more aware of our connectedness and our status as those who are recipients of what others have to offer. With that in our consciousness, the great day will take care of itself.
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